Throughout my ministry there have been people who have come
to me and asked my opinion concerning the subject of Halloween. Often I receive a text message or email on
Halloween from my friends that say “Happy Reformation Day!” My own wife, whom I love dearly, cannot stand
Halloween. She despises this holiday
with a passion.
The question has always been raised in my mind: How should
Christians respond to Halloween? Should
we receive the holiday, reject the holiday altogether or can we redeem
it?
First, let's talk about some fun facts concerning Halloween:
·
Halloween is celebrated by millions of people
each year worldwide.
·
Halloween is the Second highest grossing
commercial holiday only to Christmas.
·
A quarter of all candy sold
annually in the USA is for Halloween night.
As we consider Halloween let us remember that this day
carries with it a lot of baggage. Few
holidays have a history as strange as that of Halloween. One could stand to make a case that this
day is a celebration of Reformation Day!
Often it is referred to as the Eve of “All Saints Day.” You
might say it is not Halloween but rather it is Hallelujah! 495 years ago this
Halloween a little monk (Martin Luther) nailed 95 Protestations to the church
door in Wittenberg.
At the same time, Halloween commemorates activities, ideas,
and philosophies that the church has been at war with since its inception. It is the night when ghost and goblins walk
abroad, luring young minds into a darkened world. It's hard for me, and others to understand
this curious mixture of both light and darkness, good and evil.
Halloween: It’s
Origins
Generally speaking it is fairly agreed-upon that Halloween
had its origins in Celtic festivals.
These festivals marked the end of summer. In the Celtic festivals there was a popular
festival called the Festival of Samhain.
There are two schools of thought on this festival. One suggests that the basis of this festival
was human sacrifice. Others want to
suggest that the origins of Halloween arise not from human sacrifice but from a
festival of the dead celebrating supernatural intensities bringing on the onset
of winter.
Whichever origin you want to take, I think both are pretty
dangerous. Here is what has happened in
our culture: Halloween has been rejected as demonic or pagan, and today it is
relatively accepted as harmless fun for children, yet we continue to let our
children dress in ghost and goblins and skulls and skeletons.
The British culture made some contributions to Halloween, as
we know it. In fact most of the actual
traditions and practices of the holiday developed out of the medieval Christian
holy day known to us as All Saints Day. In the early 4th century people
begin to practice the celebration to remember the martyrs of the early Roman
persecutions. However by the 9th
century, festivals begin to shift in their focus. The original intent was being lost, and
almost forgotten. By the end of the 12th
century, All Saints Day was a
well-established moment in the Christian year, and by the end of the Middle
Ages this day was among the most important days. In fact the church had declared it one of the
six days of obligation, marked by high masses and prayers. It had become a holiday that affirmed the
collective claims that the dead had on the living. The masses also served as insurance against
hauntings from ghost. These ghosts were
generally understood to be dead relatives who visited their kin to rectify
wrongs committed against them while they were alive. As night fell All Saints Day had arrived.
The bells would ring for the souls in purgatory; these were people who
were in spiritual suspension. An intermediary
space said to be between heaven and hell.
On this day Saints would pray prayers and offer penance for their sins
before the Day of Judgment. Churches
would make sure that their bells were in good shape and in working order. It was an effort to ward off the demonic
spirits.
Over time several rituals were added to the celebration of
the mass. In England churches purchased
extra candles and torches for processions during All Saints Day celebrations.
Bonfires were built in graveyards to ward off any coming spirits.
After the Reformation in the 16th century the rituals of All Saints Day came under attack from
the Protestants. Because of the
association with the doctrines of purgatory, Saints and prayers for the dead
the reformers denounced purgatory and rejected the idea that the living could
influence the condition of the dead by their prayers. The reformers also rejected the belief that
Saints could function as mediators between humans and Christ. Various Protestant leaders such as Thomas
Cranmer tried to abolish Halloween practices and rituals, but the Catholic
leaders made sure it died a slow death and faithfully tired to revive them.
Nevertheless, by the end of Elizabeth's reign official practices
surrounding All Saints Day
(Halloween) and Hallowmass had been eliminated.
However, the more popular customs that grew out of this continued among
the common people. It had now become
ingrained in the culture.
Over time, Halloween traditions developed apart from any
religious connotations. Although the
initial religious celebration had in mind to remember those who lost their
lives during immense persecution, what grew from that practice was diversity in
ideas and a declining fortune for the holiday.
As you can see, Christians should be very thoughtful in
their approach to Halloween. This is but a brief overview of the issues at
hand. In Scotland and Ireland and
England Halloween was observed throughout the 19th century and into
the 20th century. During
these times there was immigration to North America and with it guess what? They brought Halloween. It had become a strong tradition of
disguising and pranks, and Halloween continues to evolve today in the world we
live in.
Halloween for the
follower of Christ:
So, should the Christian reject, receive or redeemed the
day? Halloween does have an uneasy history
with the church. And rightly so,
Christians have not always been sure what to do with the holiday. Is Halloween redeemable, does it cause us to
compromise our faith, are there ramifications concerning our religious purity?
Or is there an opportunity for us to emphasize certain aspects of our own faith
within the holiday?
There are 3 positions
as I see it:
1.
Halloween
is “the Devil Day” and we should reject it.
The Christian church has tried to deal with Halloween in
many ways throughout the centuries it has been rejected as demonic and pagan
holiday. And for many, this is the only
option. When the most recent examples
comes from a well-known individual, Pat Robertson, who called Halloween the
“Festival of the Devil.” He suggested that participating in Halloween was a
mistake for Christians and wrong.
In rejecting this holiday out right, I think Robertson and
others fail to ask the question: To what
extent does something's evolution from pagan roots prohibit our
participation? Albert Mohler, makes an observation
that there has been a shift in Halloween from a pagan ritual to merely a
commercial fascination with the dark side.
I agree that dressing up, as witches and goblins is a tricky
and risky issue, I ask people among our church not to dress and scary
costumes. But to think that putting on a
scary mask or makeup opens us up to the dark supernatural side is a bit naïve,
it would take a lot more than that to open up some dark experience with the
enemy. Still, I do believe however, that
we as parents should be careful that not to promote or cultivate a mindset that
would begin to grow in a young child's mind in that direction. That my friend is where my fear for Halloween
lies! It's not that one costume on one
night is going to ruin the child forever, but that it begins perhaps a
curiosity, into the darker aspects of that evil reality. The war is between
light and darkness and we need to be careful not to subject our young minds to
the evil influence.
I do see a problem with the blanket rejection position of
Halloween. First, it is very hard, if
not impossible, for those who insist on rejecting certain holidays to be
consistent. Should we reject other
holidays because there is a propensity toward excess, or roots in something
ungodly? If that were the case then we
would have to reject Thanksgiving! How
horrible would that be? I mean after all
gluttony is a sin, and who on Thanksgiving not stuff their stomachs with too
much food and pie? We would also have to
reject Christmas, as it is today, because the idea of going into debt for
Christmas is really against what the Scripture teaches but it is what the
culture pushes. Not to mention the culture commercialism of almost all the
holidays. Even Easter with the bunny
would be in question.
The second major issue that I see with a blanket rejection
of Halloween, is that this assumes that the evil world will taint the faith of
the Christian. I would ask you to read
Mark 7:21-23. Jesus seems to make the
point that the fruit of our lives whether tied to holiness or sin is found
within our heart. If our hearts are
prone toward sin, than sin we will! Sin
indeed corrupts, but the sin we should worry most about is not what is in the
world, but it's the sin in our hearts that matters most. We see the reject position falsely assumes
that sin is what we do rather than who we are.
2.
Halloween
is innocent therefore I should receive it.
To accept Halloween as innocent is both ridiculous and
foolish. I think if you have even the
most basic informed understanding of the history of Halloween, you will be
concerned, and cautious in your practices.
Light is at war with the darkness, and we cannot stick our heads in the
sand and ignore that fight.
3.
Halloween
does have its issues and we should seek to redeem it.
Just how Christians ought to feel about redeeming Halloween
is and will always be a tricky subject.
In order to navigate the waters effectively and successfully, we must
distinguish between the cultural aspects of Halloween and religious aspects of
the holiday.
In the past the church has tried to redeem the religious
aspects of the holiday by adding it to the churches calendar. And as a pastor, this issue is a real
struggle, because not everyone shares the level of knowledge, or the desire to
redeem this day. I truly believe there
should be no pressure placed upon others to participate on this day, and for
those of us who do commence to engage this day, we should do so wisely and with caution. We should thoughtfully walk through this day
fighting for truth and being light.
I believe Martin Luther was wise as he a reformer concerned
with Halloween’s association with the evil spirits. He said on one occasion: “The best way to
drive out the devil, if he will not yield the text of Scripture, is to jeer and
flout him for he cannot bear scorn.”
Perhaps instead of fleeing the darkness in fear, we should
view Halloween as an opportunity to mock the enemy who has no power over us
because any power he possesses, has been broken by the power of the cross!
